Sustainable Crop Solutions
DemAgtech
About Us
Board of Directors
Dr James Williams, Executive Director
Dr Bruce Lee, Executive Director
Todd Shand, Executive Director
Robert Dugdale, Non-Executive Director
Steven Caltrider, Non-Executive Director
Board of Directors
Dr James Williams, Executive Director
James is an accomplished scientist, entrepreneur and investor. He has been involved from concept to commercialisation in successful innovation and commercialisation. His roles include CEO, CTO and Board member for numerous biotech companies resulting in five FDA approved drugs and devices. He conceived the technology behind iCeutica Inc (acquired in 2011) and co-discovered the lead therapy for ASX-listed Dimerix Limited (ASX:DXB), currently in Phase 3 trials for Chronic Kidney Disease and COVID19 respiratory effects.
James is involved in all phases of investment across the Yuuwa portfolio and is currently a Director of PolyActiva Pty Ltd. He remains Chairman of Dimerix and is on the Board of Linear Clinical Research Ltd, a not-for-profit clinical trial facility.
Dr Bruce Lee,
Executive Director
Bruce has over 35 years of experience working in agriculture with leadership roles in research & development, and business development.
Previously, he was CEO of Genective (established Genective USA Corporation and its research, development and commercialisation activities for transgenic traits in corn). Prior to that he was at the CSIRO where he directed research and commercialisation in the areas of grains, beef, aquaculture and designed (sustainable) food and ingredients.
Before joining CSIRO he held various roles with the seeds businesses of Syngenta, Novartis and Ciba-Geigy based in Basel, Switzerland.
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Bruce has led the development and commercialisation of numerous products (novel grains, plant traits, aquafeeds) and the successful implementation of breeding programs in aquaculture species.
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Bruce has a degree in Agricultural Science (University of Sydney) and a doctorate (University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany).
Todd Shand,
Executive Director
Todd has over 20 years experience as a patent attorney including prosecution and litigation of a wide range of patent types encompassing new chemical entities, second (and subsequent) uses, salts, solvates, polymorphs, synthetic methods, formulations including formulations limited by reference to physical characteristics, excipients and/or pharmacokinetic parameters and dose regimes.
Todd has worked with companies from ideas to public listing. He has defended patents that underpin entire businesses and asserted those patents providing solutions to keep competitors out of valuable markets and has also protected businesses against allegations of patent infringement that had the potential to shut down those businesses.
Todd is a Fellow of the Institute of Patent and Trademark Attorneys of Australia. He is a Chartered Chemist at the Royal Australian Chemical Institute, He is admitted as a patent attorney in Australia and NZ and holds a law degree.
Robert Dugdale,
Non-Executive Director
Rob is now an independent consultant with 40 years of experience in the agricultural chemicals industry. He has held senior positions in marketing and sales management with leading multinational companies including the agricultural divisions of Shell Australia and Hoechst Schering AgrEvo and as the cotton Product Marketing Manager, he led the research, development and introduction of several market leading agricultural products. Rob served as the CEO of the Bayer and Syngenta joint venture company, Cotton Growers Services, a cotton and broadacre crop focussed retail enterprise. He is an experienced company director having held directorships in a Cooperative Research Centre and is currently a Director of Cotton Australia in which he chairs the corporate governance committee.
Rob holds a Diploma of Agriculture and is a Graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.
Steven Caltrider,
Non-Executive Director
Steven Caltrider is based in the United States. Steve is currently Vice President and Chief IP Counsel of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI). He also serves as Chair-Elect of the American Bar Association Section of Intellectual Property and as a member and past-chair of the United States Public Patent Advisory Committee (PPAC) for the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Prior to this, he was the VP and General Patent Counsel at the global pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and holds 20+ years of experience as a patent attorney in an industry driven by research and innovation.
Research Team
Professor Josh Mylne
Josh is Centre Deputy Director at the Centre for Crop and Disease Management at Curtin University.
Professor Mylne (PhD 2002, Botany, University of Queensland) worked at the John Innes Centre in England (2001-2005), using molecular genetics to study proteins that accelerate flowering in response to prolonged cold (vernalization). In 2006 he moved to the Division of Chemistry & Structural Biology at The Institute for Molecular Bioscience at The University of Queensland where he held a QEII Fellowship (2008-2012) from the Australian Research Council (ARC) and was the inaugural John S. Mattick Fellow (2010-2012). In 2013 he joined The University of Western Australia and took up an ARC Future Fellowship in the School of Chemistry & Biochemistry and The ARC Centre of Excellence in Plant Energy Biology.
In 2012 he was awarded the Peter Goldacre Award, in 2014 chosen as a Feinberg Foundation Visiting Fellow to the Weizmann Institute in Israel and in 2018 won a Fulbright Professional Scholarship to work at The University of Minnesota in the USA. In 2021 he moved to Curtin University to become Deputy Director of the Centre for Crop and Disease Management.
His research interests have included protein evolution, the molecular mechanisms underlying the biosynthesis of bioactive peptides and since coming to Perth, the discovery of novel herbicides and novel modes of action. At Curtin University he is expanding his agrichemical interests to include fungicides, namely their metabolism within plants and their role in protection from plant pathogens.
Keith Stubbs,
Assoc Professor
Dr Keith Stubbs is an Associate Professor at The University of Western Australia, Faculty of Science, School of Molecular Sciences.
Keith completed his PhD at the University of Western Australia (UWA) in carbohydrate synthesis. Following postdoctoral studies in chemical biology at Simon Fraser University, Canada, Dr Stubbs joined the School of Biomedical, Biomolecular and Chemical Sciences at UWA in 2008. Dr Stubbs is currently an Associate Professor in the School of Molecular Sciences at UWA where his research focuses on using a combination of chemical and biochemical approaches to study various biological systems. Specifically, Dr Stubbs’ research in the area of herbicides has helped form the current platform for Demagtech.
Dr Stubbs has also received several awards including an Australian Research Council Australian Postdoctoral and Future Fellowships, Western Australian Tall Poppy, Royal Australian Chemical Institute's Rennie Memorial Medal for contributions to Chemistry in Australia and the Athel Beckwith Lectureship and is an author of over 100 scientific articles and patents.
Joel Haywood
Joel is a DECRA Research Fellow at The University of Western Australia, Faculty of Science, School of Molecular Sciences.
Joel has over 15 years of experience in conducting protein crystallography and pharmaceutical research. He obtained his PhD from the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Beijing, China) studying the crystal structures of new emerging viruses and their receptors. Prior to that Joel worked in research and development at Pfizer (Sandwich, UK) and Synairgen (Southampton, UK) measuring cell and viral responses to lead compounds and their pharmacokinetic profiles. Joel was awarded a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award from the Australian Research Council in 2018 on structure-based investigations into new modes of action for herbicides. At Curtin University he continues his research and development into new herbicidal compounds and their modes of action.
Karen Breese
Karen is a synthetic organic chemist with a PhD in organic chemistry from the Australian National University. Karen has previously worked at Epichem, where she gained industrial experience in medicinal chemistry for neglected diseases and a diverse range of organic synthesis, including pharmaceutical reference standards, analogue libraries, large scale synthesis, method development, and compound characterisation. Currently, Karen is at the University of Western Australia in Associate Professor Keith Stubbs’ lab, developing small molecules for Demagtech’s herbicide pipeline.
Liddy McCall
Liddy is a co-founder of 3 biotechnology companies successfully achieving 3 FDA drug registrations, 1 FDA/CE Mark medical device approval and multiple current phase 3 clinical trial programs. She is an inventor on granted patents in major jurisdictions translating novel G-protein coupled receptor pharmacology into therapeutic drug treatment.
Liddy co-founded venture capital fund, Yuuwa Capital LP in 2009. Notable investments include Agworld Pty Ltd sold to SemioBio Inc in 2021 for over $100m, Polyactive Pty Ltd currently in clinical trials for its slow-release ophthalmic products, ASX listed AdAlta Limited which completed a successful Phase 1 study during 2021 and ASX listed iCetana Limited which has a global sale in SAAS services for video security.
Liddy has over 30 years of experience in management and senior Board roles. She was an Associate Director at Macquarie Bank (Sydney and Toronto). She has qualifications in finance and law and worked as a lawyer in a leading Australian law firm. She is on the Board of the not-for-profit Ear Science Institute of Australia and has non-executive board roles in other companies.
